People have been lying to you your entire
life. You’ve probably heard myths about your body
that you just assumed were true because an adult said so. However, we guarantee there are many things
you were told that aren’t actually true. Does shaving your body make your hair grow
faster? What really happens when you swallow gum? Could you drink urine in extreme circumstances? Get ready to have your mind blown. Let’s clear something up right off the bat. Most people believe that shaving your beard,
or any part of your body, makes the hair grow back thicker and darker. But is there any truth to this? This belief likely came about over a hundred
years ago, but back in 1928, it was debunked. Yet, almost everyone still believes this common
body myth to be true. The fact of the matter is that when you shave,
you aren’t actually removing all of the hair from your skin. Instead, the hair is cut to its base, to where
the follicle rests just under the skin. At this location, the hair is at its thickest. After you shave, the hair starts to regrow
from its base, which means it starts out coarser than when you initially sheered it off. This is what gives the impression that the
hair is thicker than before. However, over time, the hairs will begin to
taper off and become thinner with the wear and tear of everyday life. The color may also appear darker at first
as the new hair growth has yet to be exposed to light, moisture, or the chemicals in soap,
all of which weakens the keratin that makes up your hair and causes it to become lighter
and thinner. Given enough time, the hair will look identical
to how it did before you shaved. Clinical trials and the data they’ve collected
prove that hair does not grow back thicker or darker when you shave. Instead, this is just an illusion during the
regrowth process. You still have the same amount of hair follicles,
and the coloration will change back to what it was before you shaved given enough time. What color is human blood? Depending on who you ask, you might get different
answers. You probably know at least one person who
thinks human blood is blue. Human blood is red. It is always red. It will always be red. The reason human blood is red is because it
contains a molecule called hemoglobin. This is an incredibly important molecule because
it allows your blood to carry oxygen around the body. Without hemoglobin, you would suffocate to
death. Another property of hemoglobin is that it
contains a lot of iron. It is this aspect of the molecule that makes
your blood red. The reason your veins look blue is not that
the blood flowing through them is blue but because the veins absorb all other wavelengths
of light and only reflect back the color blue to your eyes. However, human blood is never blue. To be fair, your blood can be different shades
of red depending on how much oxygen is in it. The more oxygen there is in the blood, the
brighter the red will be. If the oxygen levels are low, the blood will
be a darker shade of red Some creatures do have blue blood, but humans
aren’t one of them. Octopi and horseshoe crabs both use a molecule
called hemocyanin to transport oxygen in their blood This molecule makes their blood blue. Incredibly, there are creatures such as Prasinohaema
lizards that have green blood, so there is a variety of blood colors in the animal kingdom,
but no matter what, all human blood is red. In practically every biology class around
the world, students are taught that the ability to curl the tongue is an inherited trait. Unfortunately, you and everyone else who learned
this fact, has been lied to. In 1940 a geneticist named Alfred Sturtevant
conducted an experiment where he gathered data on a group of children's ability to roll
their tongue and compared it to their parents. His conclusion was that parents who could
roll their tongues had offspring with the same trait. This meant that the ability to roll your tongue
is an inherited trait. For over a decade, this was thought to be
the case. It became such common knowledge that a number
of academic journals and textbooks even referenced tongue curling when discussing genetics and
inheritance. However, in 1952 a geneticist named Philip
Matlock conducted his own experiment around the heritability of the rolling the tongue
trait. His findings were intriguing. Matlock’s study used 33 sets of identical
twins to see if tongue curling was in fact an inherited trait. Identical twins have the same exact DNA as
one another, this is what makes them identical. If being able to curl your tongue is a trait
passed on by a child’s parents, then each set of twins should either have been able
to roll their tongues or not roll their tongues. What Matlock found shattered a deeply held
belief in the genetics community for over a decade. Out of the 33 sets of identical twins, 7 of
them had one twin who could roll their tongue and one twin who couldn’t. This clearly meant that being able to curl
your tongue is not inherited from the DNA passed down by parents. Even to this day, biology teachers still teach
the myth that the ability to curl your tongue is an inherited trait to entire classrooms
full of students. But now you know better. It may seem insane, but even when professors
try to correct this misconception, there is pushback from people. To combat this myth, some biology teachers
start their genetics classes by conducting a survey of how many people can roll their
tongues. The students who can’t are told to go home
and practice curling their tongues in front of the mirror to see if they can develop the
skill. By the end of the semester, the number of
students who can roll their tongues increases every year. And sticking with tongue myths, you have probably
seen a diagram of the tongue that identifies each section as being able to sense specific
tastes. Yet, this picture is a complete fabrication. The diagram itself came from a misrepresentation
of the research done by a German scientist named David P. Hänig. Hänig claimed that differences in taste were
a result of receptors in different parts of the mouth being activated by food molecules. Without Hänig’s approval, the tongue diagram
was made. Unfortunately, whoever created the image got
it all wrong. Hänig never claimed that different parts
of the tongue contained neatly divided sections of taste buds. The truth is that all areas of the tongue
and mouth contain tastebuds and they are all mixed together. There are unique receptor proteins responsible
for identifying individual tastes, but they aren’t clustered in neatly defined sections,
and they definitely aren’t all on the tongue. Therefore, the diagram that misrepresented
Hänig’s work is a complete fabrication even though it is still sometimes used in
anatomy and biology classes. Regardless of where taste receptors are located,
drinking this next bodily fluid will taste horrible and make you sick. Many people believe that you can drink urine
in extreme circumstances because it’s sterile. However, this is not true, and you should
never ever drink pee. Numerous studies have shown that people with
no urinary tract infection still have bacteria in their urine. This means that urine is not sterile. In fact, multiple species of bacteria can
live in urine, which is not surprising as these organisms can practically survive anywhere. Medical professionals have noted that the
bacteria in pee is probably not harmful if consumed, but they don’t recommend it. Regardless, the myth that your pee is sterile
is false, and under no circumstances should you drink straight urine. Like pee, there are a number of things you
shouldn’t put into your body or swallow by accident. Luckily gum isn’t one of them. There is a myth that if you swallow gum, it
will stay in your body for several years. When you think about it, this would be absurd
as nothing stays in your body for that long except for your bones and organs. To be fair, gum is a pretty resilient substance
and doesn’t immediately burn up in stomach acid or break down from your digestive enzymes. Instead, your body has a different way of
dealing with gum. When you swallow the chewy substance, it ends
up in your stomach and eventually moves to your intestines. There are even reports of people having gum
in their digestive tract for several days, but it is rare that it would stay there any
longer than a week. So, what happens to the gum? You poop it out. Although the gum might not break down, it
is still evacuated from your system with the rest of the waste in your digestive tract. Doctors have noted that if a kid swallows
enough gum, it can cause constipation as it builds up in the intestines. However, with enough laxatives, this problem
can be solved. Really what it comes down to is you should
try your best not to swallow gum in the first place, but if you do, there is no need to
worry as it will eventually come out the other end after a few days. There are a lot of misconceptions about viruses
and getting sick. At some point in your life, someone probably
told you to “bundle up, or you’ll catch a cold.” What they are implying is that when you get
too chilly it can somehow make you sick. But is there any truth to this statement? If you are exposed to freezing temperatures
for a prolonged amount of time, it can definitely lead to hypothermia or the malfunctioning
of vital systems in your body. This would not just make you feel sick but
could lead to death. However, this is different than catching a
cold from a virus or bacteria. Because the common cold and the flu are both
caused by viruses, the only way to catch them is coming into contact with somebody who also
has the virus. If you stood out in the freezing cold with
no one around you, it would be impossible to catch a cold caused by a pathogen. However, it does seem like people get sick
more often during the colder seasons, so why is that? When a virus or bacteria enters your body,
it normally gets caught in the mucus in your nose and throat. When you swallow, that mucus gets sent down
your throat to your digestive system, where anything trapped in it is destroyed by the
acids in your stomach. During cold weather, every time you breathe
the cool air in through your nose and mouth, the mucus also cools. This slows the slimy substance’s movement
through the body, which allows pathogens more time to break through the mucus barrier and
get into your cells. Therefore, it is not the cold weather that
makes you sick but a pathogen that has weaseled its way out of your mucus membrane and into
vulnerable parts of your body. It’s not uncommon for someone to be afraid
of flu shots or vaccines because they are nervous that they will catch the virus from
the vaccine itself. However, this myth is more of the result of
coincidence and the misunderstanding of what a vaccine is more than anything else. A vaccine is made out of a completely dead
or very weakened form of a pathogen. What this means is that it’s impossible
for the vaccine to give you the disease that it’s designed to prevent because the parts
of the pathogen in it are unable to replicate or infect your cells. For example, when you get the flu shot, parts
of the flu are being injected into your body, but since they are inactive, there is no way
the flu shot can give you the flu. So, where does this myth come from, and why
is it so prevalent? There is no denying that sometimes after you
get a vaccine, you don’t feel great, but this is to be expected. Your immune system is developing structures
that will later fight off the real pathogen if it ever enters your body. This process may cause things like aches or
a mild fever because these are the natural side effects of your body boosting your immune
system. However, people mistake the side effects for
the flu itself. They then spread the rumor that the flu shot
gave them the flu. The good thing is the side effects of a vaccine
will always be much milder than getting sick from the disease itself. This myth also comes from a misunderstanding
of correlation and causation. There is a chance you will get sick after
getting a vaccine, but there is also a chance you will get sick after watching a movie. Yet, we don’t assume watching a movie was
the reason you got sick. Doing one of these things doesn’t cause
the other, and this is true with vaccines. You normally get vaccines at a doctor’s
office or hospital. It should come as no surprise that there will
likely be sick people at these locations that might be contagious. There is always a chance that when you go
to get your vaccine, or even just for a check-up you will come into contact with someone who
is sick. In these circumstances, it’s not the vaccine
that makes you ill but being around a higher concentration of sick people. And since a vaccine only protects you against
one type of pathogen, just because you get the flu shot does not mean you can’t get
the common cold while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office. So, what it comes down to is that vaccines
are safe, and they will absolutely protect you from the pathogen they’ve been designed
to prevent. It is the people spreading misinformation
about vaccines that are dangerous, and not the vaccines themselves. Throughout history, people have reported that
the hair and nails of the recently deceased continue to grow. But is this gruesome rumor actually true? It does in fact appear that a corpse’s fingernails
and hair get longer even days after they have passed away. However, this is not because they continue
to grow but actually happens due to an entirely different process. The myth dates back to 1929 when Erich Remarque
wrote about it in his fictional novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”. After the book became popular and was read
by the masses, this belief became widespread. But like the book itself, this post-mortem
myth was completely made up by a writer. It may seem like the nails and hair of a recently
deceased cadaver grow longer even after they take their final breath, but this is actually
just an illusion. What is really happening is that the skin
around these regions is shrinking as water is lost. The dehydration process then causes the skin
to retract and makes it seem as if the nails and hair are growing. This is a perfect example of why you can’t
believe everything you read unless it’s from a credible source and supported by evidence. Your body is really good at getting rid of
toxins. If it weren’t, you’d be dead. But is there a better way to detox, such as
drinking herbal remedies or cleansing your system with saltwater enemas? According to science, there are no treatments
that can replace, or improve upon, the natural detox systems in your body. These structures include the kidneys, liver,
and lungs. Your organs have evolved over millions of
years to ensure that the blood circulating around your body has as few toxins in it as
possible. Even as you watch this video, your body is
hard at work taking out any harmful substances in your blood and breaking them down to make
sure you excrete them before they poison you. There are tons of companies who try and sell
the myth that there are miracle substances that can rid your body of toxins. Unless that person is a certified medical
professional trying to get lethal amounts of drugs out of your system, they are lying
to you. It is also interesting to note that any company
that says their product will remove toxins from your body are often incredibly vague
about which toxins they will be targeting. The reason for this is because if they started
naming specific molecules, their product could then be clinically tested, and the results
probably wouldn’t go in their favor. As a child, you may have been told to stop
cracking your knuckles because it will give you arthritis. There is some good news for those of us who
do this when we’re nervous: cracking your knuckles has no connection to arthritis of
any kind. Numerous studies have been done to debunk
this claim. Scientists have concluded that there is no
connection between habitual knuckle-crackers and the development of arthritis. But there is another part of this myth that
has also been debunked. According to the research, even people who
already have arthritis can crack their knuckles as this habit does not seem to make their
arthritis any worse. There are some downsides to cracking your
knuckles, however. It seems that there is a correlation between
knuckle cracking and a reduction of grip strength. It is also possible to hurt yourself or dislocate
a bone if you try too hard to get a knuckle to crack. The actual sound from cracking your knuckles
comes from the popping of bubbles in your synovial fluid, which is the liquid that helps
lubricate your joints. Sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing. Those are the five human senses… or are
they? As we think of them, the five human senses
came from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He believed every sense could be connected
back to a part of the body. And since Aristotle didn’t know about the
inner ear canal or its importance in helping us maintain our sense of balance, along with
many other structures, he left many of our senses off his list. Now we know that the vestibular system is
responsible for helping us not fall over every time we take a step. Incredibly, your skin alone is capable of
sensing several different stimuli. Your skin has receptors to identify not only
touch but pain, temperature, and proprioception. Proprioception, also known as kinesthesia,
is your body’s ability to sense movement and position. Depending on who you ask, we could have as
many as 9 to 33 senses. Regardless of the exact number, humans definitely
have more than just five. Many people have been told that if they touch
a frog it can give them warts. This is just not possible as the bumps on
frogs aren’t actually warts at all. This myth probably came from mothers who didn’t
want their children picking up dirty amphibians like frogs and toads. The truth of the matter is that the bumps
on their skin are actually glands. You could never get warts from picking up
one of these animals because warts come from something completely different than frogs. Warts are most often caused by a virus such
as the human papillomavirus or HPV, which is the most common pathogen associated with
warts. Therefore, unless a frog transfers a wart-causing
virus to you, which is next to impossible since we are very different species, there
is no way for a frog to give you warts. How much of the human brain actually gets
used? You have probably heard that humans only use
around 10% of their brain. Even this seems a little high for some people. However, this statistic isn’t quite accurate
as it is a complete lie. The 10% myth may have been started by an American
psychologist named William James, who wrote a book called “The Energies of Men”. In it he said: "We are making use of only
a small part of our possible mental and physical resources." James never threw out an exact percentage
for brain use, but this could be where the 10% statistic started. Regardless of where it came from, you, and
every human on the planet, use 100% of their brain throughout the day. Even while asleep, your frontal cortex and
somatosensory areas, which help you sense things around you, are still operating. These two sections already make up over 10%
of your brain. Neuroscientists also point to the fact that
the brain accounts for only around 3% of body weight while it uses around 20% of your energy. This just shows how active this organ is. There is no secret to unlocking more brainpower
because you likely are already using all of it already. Unfortunately, this means you probably don’t
have any latent superpowers or the ability to talk to ghosts hidden away in a secret
section of your nervous system. When was the last time you went swimming right
after eating? Probably a very long time ago because you
believe in the myth that you need to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming. The chances of drowning from a cramp are incredibly
low. The chances of drowning from a cramp caused
by eating before swimming are close to zero. Where this myth originated from is unclear,
but it was mentioned in the book Scouting for Boys, which was published in 1908. The thought process behind it seems to have
come from the idea that your body increases the amount of blood flowing to your stomach
to help with digestion when you eat food. In theory, this can cause cramps, but it would
be highly unlikely any digestion-caused cramp would be debilitating enough to cause you
to drown. However, drinking 30 minutes before swimming
can most certainly lead to death. We are not talking about drinking a soda or
some lemonade. Instead, we are referring to alcohol as intoxication
is one of the leading causes of drowning around the world. Therefore, eating 30 minutes before swimming
is probably okay. Getting in the water after a couple of margaritas
or Mai Tais is a different story. When it gets cold outside, you probably think
about putting a hat on after your jacket. This is because a commonly held belief is
that you lose more heat from your head than any other part of your body. This is not true. There are a couple of factors that cause people
to hold onto this misconception. The first is that the head and face have a
higher concentration of receptors that make them more sensitive to temperature changes
in the environment. However, the body doesn’t lose more heat
from the head than other parts of the body. Some researchers have suggested that this
myth originated from the United States Military. In the 1950s, the U.S. Army wanted to test
survival gear in case the Cold War turned hot and they had to fight the Soviets in Arctic
conditions. So, they put soldiers in a freezing cold environment
to ensure their outfits allowed them to retain enough body heat to operate in sub-zero temperatures. The snowsuits covered the body from neck to
toe but did not cover the head. Therefore, the report noted that the soldiers
were losing most of their heat through their heads, but that was because it was the only
part of the body that remained exposed to the cold. Somehow the findings of this experiment got
twisted into the soldiers losing more heat from their head than any other region of their
body. But this would have been true about any part
of their body that was directly exposed to the cold temperatures of the Arctic. In practically every medical television show
or movie you have ever seen where someone flatlines, the doctors rush in with a defibrillator
and shock the patient back to life. But this is not how it works in the real world. Real medical professionals do not bring in
a defibrillator when someone's heart stops beating. This is because it would do absolutely nothing. Defibrillators are used to shock a heart back
into its normal rhythm if it is beating irregularly. The actual beating of the heart is caused
by electrical signals coming from the brain and delivered through the nervous system. When these signals somehow get out of sync,
it can lead to an irregular rhythm or heart attack. The defibrillator is then used to deliver
an electric shock that forces the heart back into its normal rhythm. The key here is that the nervous system's
electrical signals still need to be stimulating the heart for the defibrillator to work. If the heart has stopped beating completely
and someone flatlines, it means that there is no electrical signal to try and shock back
into sync, and therefore, a defibrillator is useless in this situation. Luckily, real-world doctors know this and
would never try and use a defibrillator in this type of situation. Instead, when a patient flatlines, medical
professionals begin doing CPR to keep blood and oxygen flowing to the brain. As CPR is happening, the patient is given
an epinephrine injection which increases adrenaline in the body and jumpstarts the chemical signals
in the brain. The ideal outcome is that the brain will then
restart the heart, and blood will start pumping around the body again. One of your friends is sleepwalking around
the house. You want to help, but you’ve been told if
you wake them up they could die. What do you do? First of all, don’t panic. You will not kill your friend by waking them
during a sleepwalking episode. Around 7% of people sleepwalk during their
lifetime. However, no one has ever died from being awoken
while sleepwalking. This myth came about before advances in neuroscience
that allowed us to better understand what is happening with a sleepwalker’s brain. People used to think that when someone was
sleepwalking, their soul left the body. It was thought that if you woke someone in
this state, their soul would not be able to return to their body, and they would live
the rest of their life as a soulless creature. We don’t know the specific reasons that
sleepwalking occurs, but it definitely isn’t because someone’s soul has left their body. Scientists have discovered that sleepwalking
most often occurs when someone is in a deep stage of sleep, and the brain starts signaling
the body to do certain activities while they are unconscious. The interesting thing is that sleepwalking
seems to be genetic, meaning that if one of your parents is a sleepwalker, you have a
higher chance of sleepwalking yourself. When someone sleepwalks, their eyes are often
open, but they do not respond to stimuli. Instead, they seem to be on autopilot carrying
out whatever task their brain is subconsciously signaling them to do. When encountering a sleepwalker, the best
thing to do is just let them be until they wake up. You can gently guide them back to bed as they
will likely not realize you’re even there as you herd them in the right direction. It is absolutely okay to wake someone up if
they are in danger while sleepwalking, but they might be disoriented and confused until
they regain their bearings. There are actually accounts of sleepwalkers
dying, but it’s not because someone woke them up. Instead, there have been reports of sleepwalkers
getting behind the wheel of a car and crashing or cooking a meal on the stove and catching
the house on fire. However, there is no evidence that simply
waking a sleepwalker can kill them or cause them to lose their soul. You probably know someone who can bend their
thumb all the way back to their wrist or contort their body in a crazy way. We call this being double-jointed, but in
reality, there is no such thing. This body myth just comes from semantics. Everyone has the same number of joints, whether
you are flexible or not. Being able to bend your body parts in unique
ways does not mean you have more joints than someone who is less pliable. People who are more flexible can be identified
as having hypermobility or joint laxity. This consists of somewhere between 10 to 25%
of the human population. Rather than having extra joints, these people
either have abnormally shaped bones or loose ligaments that allow them to move and stretch
their bodies in unique ways. There isn’t much benefit to having hypermobility
other than to impress your friends with it or to go into a line of work where contorting
your body is advantageous, like dancing. But regardless of how flexible you are, you
still have the same number of joints as everyone else. There are a lot of weight loss techniques
that companies try to sell that are unsubstantiated by science. There are also some diets and lifestyles that
can help you lose weight, but which ones are true and which ones are just phoney? Many diet regimens call for low carb intake. This can definitely lead to weight loss, but
it can also be taken too far. Carbohydrates are a form of stored energy
that your body needs. Like anything, as long as high-carb foods
are eaten in moderation, it is okay to have them now and then. There actually isn’t much you can’t eat
and still lose weight as long as you monitor your intake. Diets that claim all carbs are bad, and therefore,
you shouldn’t be eating whole grains or fruits have no scientific basis. You need carbs, and your body definitely needs
the other vitamins and nutrients found in these types of foods. That being said, highly processed foods high
in carbohydrates like chips and cookies can definitely be taken out of a diet to aid in
weight loss. But that is not just because they contain
carbs; they also have high amounts of saturated fats and sodium as well. So, any diet that claims you can’t eat any
carbs at all is definitely not healthy and should be avoided. If you reduce the amount of processed foods
you eat and exercise regularly, you will have greater success losing weight than any miracle
diet. There are some foods that people swear have
miraculous effects on the body. However, sometimes this is taken too far. You may have been tricked into eating carrots
with claims that this magical vegetable will give you night vision. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Researchers have shown that carrots are definitely
good for your eyesight, but they will never allow you to see in a pitch-black environment. It is believed this myth came out of World
War II as a way to trick the enemy. False information was being fed to the Axis
Powers that the carrots Allied soldiers were eating gave them night-vision. It was because of the orange vegetable that
Allied forces were so successful at shooting down enemy aircraft at night. This was just a clever lie to disguise the
fact that the Allies had developed a radar system that allowed them to target Axis forces
more accurately. The carrots that the Allies were eating at
the time had very little effect on the eyesight of the pilots and soldiers. However, there are definitely benefits to
eating carrots. They are a good source of vitamin A which
enables your eyes to convert light into readable signals by the brain. This does, in theory, increase someone’s
ability to see in low light environments but is nowhere near enough to give them night
vision. There is a catch to the miracle of carrots,
though. In order for the vitamins contained within
the vegetable to be absorbed into your cells, the carrots need to be consumed with fat. This means that if you are just munching on
carrots, they will have very little benefit to your eyesight. However, if you pair them with a piece of
meat, it will allow for more vitamin A to reach your optic nerves. An easier method for obtaining vitamin A for
improved eyesight is by taking a multivitamin or a Vitamin A supplement. This has been shown to be much more effective
than eating massive quantities of carrots on a daily basis. Another common food misconception is that
turkey makes you sleepy because it contains an amino acid called tryptophan. You have likely felt sleepy after eating a
Thanksgiving meal, and someone told you the reason for this is because turkey contains
tryptophan. They are not wrong that turkey contains tryptophan,
and the molecule does in fact make you drowsy; however, it is not the reason you are tired
after a Thanksgiving meal. There is the same amount of tryptophan in
almost all meats as there is in turkey. Even foods like soybeans, cheeses, and some
seeds contain the same levels of tryptophan as turkey does. However, like in all of these foods, the amount
of tryptophan in turkey is significantly less than most other amino acids. Even though a small amount of tryptophan circulates
around your body after you eat turkey, it has to compete with at least five other more
abundant amino acids to gain access to your brain. This reduces its impact even further. What it comes down to is that after a large
Thanksgiving meal, your body needs to use a lot of energy to break down the starches,
fats, and carbohydrates you just consumed. It is not the tryptophan that is making you
sleepy but the digestive process itself. So, it doesn’t really matter if you eat
turkey or not; you will still get sleepy after any large meal. There is a common thought among the workout
community that if you don’t continue weight lifting, your muscles will turn to fat. You may be surprised to learn that muscle
and fat are two completely different types of tissue, and one can never turn into the
other. Although it is true that if you stop working
out and lifting weights, your muscles will shrink, they definitely will not turn into
fat. Yet, there seems to be a connection between
stopping a workout regiment and the development of fat on the body. Health experts explain that it is not the
muscles turning into fat that causes this increase in body fat, but the change in lifestyle
in general. What happens is that working out is often
connected to trying to live a healthier and more active lifestyle. When gym routine falls to the wayside, oftentimes,
other aspects of staying healthy do as well. It is a combination of less exercise, worse
eating habits, and the slowing down of someone’s metabolism due to inactivity that makes it
seem like their muscles are turning into fat. Theoretically, someone could stop lifting
weights but still maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, which would result in no new fat
accumulation, but even still, their muscles would start to reduce in size. Coffee is the go-to beverage for someone trying
to wake up in the morning. However, it is often said children shouldn’t
drink coffee because it can stunt their growth. There are definitely reasons that a young
person should stay away from coffee, but stunted growth is not one of them. There have been a number of studies done on
this myth, and they have found no evidence that connects coffee to impaired growth. The myth most likely comes from the idea that
the caffeine in coffee can cause osteoporosis or a deficiency in vitamin D. This can impact bone density and make them
more fragile. However, the amount of caffeine contained
in coffee has very little effect on the strength of bones. This small effect can easily be offset by
drinking milk or consuming other forms of calcium. Researchers warn that even though coffee won’t
stunt a child's growth, it could cause other problems such as high blood pressure, but
this is true for anyone who puts caffeine into their body. For this reason, it is best for everyone to
limit the amount of caffeine they consume, not just children. Also, caffeine is an addictive substance,
which can cause withdrawal symptoms if levels in the body are low. These symptoms can be exasperated by the fact
that a child's brain is still developing. Therefore, it is better to keep kids away
from coffee until they are more mature. However, at no point will drinking coffee
impact growth. And speaking of addiction, there is a myth
that getting addicted to something is a choice. Yet, scientists, researchers, and medical
professionals have been trying to change this misconception for decades. The body is extremely complex, but there is
one organ in particular that we still have just scratched the surface of understanding. The brain controls everything in the body
and is responsible for our addictive tendencies. Unfortunately, when it encounters a substance
with the right chemical properties, the brain can be reprogrammed to crave that substance. A lot of pain relieving medication can be
addictive because the lack of pain is a feeling the brain enjoys. Other addictive substances like drugs, alcohol,
or even caffeine, cause the brain to release dopamine and other chemicals that make you
feel happy. Your brain then wants to be in that state
of pleasure more and more frequently, which eventually can lead to addiction. However, scientists have discovered that oftentimes
it is not necessarily the drug that is addictive, but that some people are “more addictable”
than others. This can be because of a genetic predisposition
or caused by an event during a person’s lifetime. What it comes down to is that addiction is
the result of how our brains are wired, and since no one can control that, there is no
way addiction can be the fault of an individual. That is why it is so important to debunk the
myth that addiction is a choice and to educate others so that everyone can get the help they
need. Now watch “Common Myths That Are Still Believed
to be Facts.” Or check out “Terrifying Urban Legends That
Turned Out To Be Real.”
